Beautiful Pangong Sunrise Timelapse

Neene (Kannada Song)

Sometimes you come across a song that is so beautiful that you just cant stop listening to it. Came across this one while randomly browsing on Youtube. Loved everything about it, the lyrics, music, the video the cast, the choregraphy. Every thing has been blended so well that you cant help falling in love with it. What makes it so much more interesting is that this is a crowd funded effort. Kudos to the team for creating such a beautiful piece of art and wishing they make many more such videos!

Pachibale (Part1)

After the last 1 day road trip to Hoganekal that happened in the month of July it was time to plan for a weekend getaway with the group again. This trip as any other of our group road trips had been planned very well in advance. In the initial stages, the trip was planned as weekend stay in a home stay called as Pachibale Homestay in Coorg., but in order to ensure we have as much time as possible during this outing, it was decided that we would start from Bangalore quite early, possibly by 3 pm to avoid the Friday rush on Mysore road, get to Gonikoppal. As the home stay is quite remote and in a region where mobile coverage is intermittent, rather than driving directly to home stay while it would get quite late in night and risking any issues, we had planned instead to book a hotel in Gonikoppal for overnight stay and early morning next day to head to the home stay. This way we would get maximum time at home stay to spend however we wished. Jayant had booked a hotel in Gonikoppal which is a relatively big town in Coorg area and quite close to Pachibale.

We had decided to take our own vehicles for this trip rather than booking a tempo. We were altogether 13 of us, and had finalized on 3 of our vehicles for this trip. On the day, 2 of the cars managed to get a head start and beat the crazy Friday traffic and managed to hit Nice road by 4 pm, while we unfortunately got stuck in a traffic jam in Hosur road and only managed to hit Nice road by around 5 pm. 

For us to catch up with the rest of the group, the guys ahead decided to stop at Kadambam restaurant near Channapatna town for snacks. The food here is good, but there are several better choices on Mysore road. One specialty of this restaurant is its Iyenger food, specifically Kancheepuram Idly.

From Bangalore Gonikoppal is around 220 kms and takes about 4 and half hours of drive on regular day. The route we choose to get there was via mysore road and a diversion towards Rangantitu to avoid entering the city. 

The guys from the  hotel that we were staying overnight had mentioned to us that the restaurants in Gonikoppal  would mostly be closed by the time we got there late night, so had advised us to have dinner on the way. So we had to plan to stop again for Dinner at someplace on the way. We stopped close to a junction just before entering Hunsur city.  There was a Cafe County and Namma hali maane right besides each other here. Opposite to these two restaurants is another restaurant called Nakshatra, which seemed relatively new. As our group had both veg and non vegetarians, we decided to try out this restaurant. This restaurant, as its relatively new is currently not marked in google maps, i have instead embedded the map to reach Cafe County.The food here turned out to be average and nothing worth writing about, but the pricing of food items is quite descent and the overall bill for a group of 13 people came just about 1000 Rs which coming from Bangalore is really cheap.

From here, Gonikoppal was less than an hours drive, and as the roads are quite good not much trouble to get to . Now on the way from Hunsur to Gonikoppal, we came across one place where the road had been barricaded to slow down vehicles. As we slowed down, a short guy standing besides one of the police barricade was waving us to stop our car. The guy was dressed in full sleeved shirt of a size a bit too large for him. Apprehensive about what it was about, we lowered the car window to let him speak. Interestingly he said he was there to collect toll. He mentioned that there had been several vehicles that had got "upset" on road ahead, and police had asked him to collect toll on their behalf and we had to pay him Rs 10. As ridiculous as the story sounded, we tried humoring him by asking if he had a permission letter from the police, to which he reduced the toll and said we could pay him Rs 5. He seemed a bit drunk and knowing very well where our money would go, we just decided to drive past him. But for originality, you definitely have to give him credit for trying.

Hotel Pranam International is where we had booked overnight stay. By the time we reached this place, it was already past 11 pm. Apart from the name, nothing else seemed to be international about the hotel. The rooms were descent enough and saying that itself is pushing it,  and not anywhere close to being of international standards. So not sure why exactly the hotel is named as International. We had booked 6 rooms for 13 people and the total for the overnight stay came upto 5250 Rs. As it was only for overnight stay not much to complain about, but the hotel definitely needs to improve.

We began quite early (by 7 am) from the hotel the next day. We were told that for breakfast most of the bigger restaurants would only open post 8-8:30 am so we choose one of the smaller restaurants at Ponnampet junction. We tried  most of the local cuisines they had to offer in this small restaurant and it turned out to be quite delicious. For a mere 550 Rs we managed to have a good descent breakfast for a group of 13 people.

As the home stay is quite remote and not something we can easily drive to, we had agreed to first drive to the home stay owners actual house and then he would drive us on his jeep to his home stay. From Gonikoppal, it takes around 28kms to reach his house.  The roads till his house are good, but the road we need to take from there to the actual home stay is pretty bad, and almost gives off=roading experience. So unless you have a SUV you can park your vehicle at the hosts parking area and then enjoy the off=roading experience on a jeep the host will drive.

I have embedded the map to reach the house of the Pachibale homestay owner. Although it would also be helpful if you can call him up before you leave from Gonikoppal so he can have someone waiting at the main road just so that its easier for you to reach his place. If you are having problem with the map i have attached, for landmark, you can ask for Beeruga school to localities. Once you reach this school you would also see a small bus stand and a temple besides it. At this point you would need to take a right turn from the main road to a smaller inroad to reach his home.

Mr. Chimma our host, is a very pleasant and friendly guy. His house is situated at a beautiful place overlooking several fields and provides a scenic panoramic view of those fields.

View from Mr. Chimma's House

As we had already called him before leaving from the hotel, he was ready with his jeep at his home by the time we reached there, so all we had to do was park our vehicles and load our luggage onto his jeep. The jeep had an attached trailer, meant to carry the luggage, but to make it more interesting and fun the luggage was loaded onto the jeep, and our group choose to stand\sit in the trailer.

Our group with Mr. Chimma at his home, getting ready to drive to his Homestay

We did take Abhisheks XUV along with the Mr. Chimma's jeep. From our hosts house, the home stay is approximately around 7-8 km and takes almost 20-30 minutes to get to.

The drive from the owners house to home stay, covers several small estates and forest areas. Infact just as we are about to reach the homestay, we even come across a small stream that the vehicle needs to drive through.



The next blog will be about the stay in Pachibale.

A Rainy Day!

There are few things more beautiful than a rainy day. Especially if you come down to Udupi\Mangalore or any of the sleepy coastal towns along the Konkan\Western ghat stretch. The canvas here is always painted with every possible shade of green during the rainy season and constant downpour just makes you fall in love with this place. This is unlike a heavy rain in Bangalore or bigger cities elsewhere, which bring the whole city to standstill, and people only end up cursing the weather out of sheer frustration, rather than enjoying the weather.  The overflowing gutters or stink that follows a heavy downpour can make you hate even something as beautiful as rain in big cities. But these sleepy and laid back coastal cities however are probably much better equipped to deal with such heavy rains, simply because these rains are part of life of these cities.  Mind you, the rains in these coastal towns are much heavier compared to Bangalore. It just doesn't rain, it pours here.

Rainy seasons have always meant heavy downpour in these places, and the basic infrastructure that these cities have, handle these rains much better than any major cities. This lets the people enjoy the heavy rains here, in the only ideal way this kind of weather should be enjoyed, by just sitting back with hot cup of coffee and plate full of  bajjis or onion pakodas and take in the beautiful show that nature puts up, the cool weather, the soothing sound of rain, with the trees adding chorus while the wind blows through them can be absolutely relaxing for any one.  Dont believe me? better plan a trip to one of these places to see for yourself then :)

Allepey

Taken during the trip to Allepey this january

Mazhaye Thoomazhaye

Another of those songs that i cant stop listening to, even though i cant make out any of the lyrics. :)



Anyone who stumbles onto this post, will be kind enough to post the translation of the lyrics :P

Dudhsagar

A collage of videos taken during the Dudhsagar trek i did last week. Not being the ideal season meant not much water, so the falls does not really look as majestic as we had expected. Only means i will have to do this trek again during the monsoon season :)

Khumaar

Ladakh Trip - Day 3 (Leh)

You can read the previous entries

Ladakh Trip - Planning here

Ladakh Trip - Day 1 (Delhi) here

Ladakh Trip - Day 2 (Leh) here

For day 3 we had 3-4 places as part of our itinerary. All of them around Leh, well within an hours distance. We didn't have to wake up early again, so that was a relief, but most of us were up by around 7 any ways, infact me and Jayant were up by 6. No one wanted to lose much time sleeping in this trip I guess. Anchuk was already at front gate with his Innova by 8 am itself, so we had to breeze through our breakfast and get ready as soon as we could.

On the way to Thiksay

First stop for day 3 was:

Thiksay monastery

12 storied Complex

It’s just around 20 km drive from Leh. This is one of the largest monastery in Ladakh area. The monastery consists of 12 storied complex and resembles a famous palace in Tibet. We reached here after 30-40 mins drive. Make sure you keep glasses, cap and bottle of water handy, as the complex is vast and there are several areas inside the complex where you will walk in the bright sun. We unfortunately didn't find any guide (not sure if guides were available) but this is definitely the kind of place, where having a guide makes perfect sense. Else as they say everything will appear to be "Greek and Latin" or in this case Tibetan.

One of the several stupas

The monastery consists of several Stupas, prayer wheels, praying halls. Each of the prayer halls contains several beautiful paintings of Tibetan mythologies and not having a guide meant we could only appreciate the art in terms of what we could see, but not comprehend the significance of any of it. There is also a terrace from where u can view the entire valley which consists of lush green fields, Indus River on one side and barren desert land on the other side.

Valley as seen from terrace in Thiksay

Panoramic view from Thiksay

Thiksay monastery also houses vast collection of ancient Tibetan scrolls consisting of volumes of scriptures. As you go from one prayer hall to another you will see several monks chanting prayer from these ancient scrolls. We tried to speak to few monks who were around and not praying, but they seemed to speak only a little of broken Hindi and English. They did however try their best to explain about the statues of deities that were around, which there were many.

Paintings, paintings everywhere!

After stumbling from one prayer room to another we finally came to one of the main attractions of this place, Maitreya Buddha.

This 50ft statue is housed in a two storied hall. This is the largest status of Maitreya Buddha in whole of Ladakh. This is also unique for the reason it portrays him sitting in a lotus position rather than standing or sitting on high throne. The face of Maitreya Buddha has a calm and serenity about it that you will instantly fall in love with. The image of the statue is widely used and you may have already seen it in promotions of Ladakh tours and packages. The hall as I said earlier consists of two floors, and the second floor is at level with the chest. When we reached this place, there was a big Japanese (we assumed) group of elderly folks that was already occupying the hall, singing out some prayer. We tried our best to be non-intrusive and squeezed in between them and found ourselves a corner where we could stand and appreciate the beauty of the statue.

Calmness and Serenity personified!

To give an idea of scale!

 Next was Tara temple, this building is dedicated within the complex, to Goddess Tara, who in Tibetan Buddhism is worshipped as female equivalent of Buddha. This temple consists of several status of Goddess Tara in different forms, it also houses statues of other deities, which only made it more difficult for us to make out anything. We couldn't tell one from the other for the life of us, only stressing the point more that a guide would have been so helpful in such a place.

Once we were done exploring, we wanted to now have a bit of Ladhaki food specifically Momos, so we headed into a restaurant that is housed just outside Thiksay monastery. Anchuk had spoken highly about the food here, but unfortunately around the time we went in (11 AM) they didn’t have Momos, and as we were not really that hungry we decided to just grab some cold drinks instead and head to next destination.

The next place in our list was the Druk White Lotus School or now famously called Rancho school after Amir Khans character from 3 idiots movie. This is around 15 kms outside Leh and barely 10 minutes’ drive from Thiksay. We were quite surprised that it had already become part of tourist packages. Once we reached there, we got to know that the school was closed as part of vacation. However due to its now tourist status, there will be school admins who will take you on a guided tour around the school complex. The guided tour starts from a hall where there are several photos and newspaper clippings of famous personalities who have paid a visit here. In here we also learnt how in 2012 there was a major flash flood and the school was severely damaged. Post the disaster, all these famous personalities including Amir Khan came in to help the school rebuild. There are several mementoes you can buy here, the proceedings of all which go to rebuilding the school. We were then taken around the complex, showing us the various constructions happening and also explaining how the school is playing an important role for Ladakhi kids. The school sprawls across vast area and takes around 20-30 minutes to go around completely.

Hang unto death!

Ladakhi school art!

As it was vacation time, we didn't get to see any kids, also the restaurant where we hoped to eat Momos turned out to be closed due to vacation. Disappointed again we started to the next place in our list.

Shey Monastery\Palace

Again just about 15kms away from Leh, and hardly 5 mins drive from the school is the complex consisting of a Monastery, Palace and a ruined Fort. Built sometimes in 16th century in Shey village by the king of Ladakh, at its height of power used to be the summer capital of Ladakh. The monastery is famous for its giant copper with gilded gold statue of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha. We however did not spend much time in the monastery or the palace, what we did instead was hike upto the top of the hillock where the ruined fort lies. Make sure you have shoes with good grip as the path to the ruined fort is loose gravel. There is barely a path, as the weather has worn out whatever existed of it, so you will have to improvise to reach the top.  There are colourful prayer flags tied to whatever’s left of the fort and these fluttering flags is what will welcome you to the top of the hillock. The hillock commands a panoramic view of the valley below and you can see several villages. The hike isn’t too tiring as it’s not too steep, and makes up for a good practice for acclimatizing to high altitude, so do give it a try if you visit Shey Palace. 

Stupas at Shey!

Valley as visible from Shey Monastery

A stupa visible from Shey Monastery being renovated

 

Making the climb

Top of the fort

By the time we were done it was around 1 PM, the planned itinerary had just one more place for us to visit and lunch was supposed to be back at hotel with the remaining day all for ourselves back at the hotel. This again was not how we wanted it, so we insisted to Anchuk to take us to some nearby village instead. He initially did not seem too keen on the idea as generally these guys stick to the plan as if it’s the bible. Also, he pointed out that there was not going to be any hotels on the way and we had not packed anything for lunch. Still debating about what to do, we reached the last planned place we had to visit.

Sindhu Ghat

This is a platform that has been built on the banks of river Indus. Sindhu is the historical name of the river Indus. Sindhu Darshan festival is a major festival in Ladakh in the month of June during which thousands of people flock to this place. However, while we visited there was not much to be seen apart from kids enjoying a good bath in the river. We were done looking around in matter of few minutes as there is hardly anything you can do apart from maybe get your feet wet in the river.

We now started back towards our hotel and the debate with Anchuk continued from where we had left before. We managed to convince Anchuk only after we agreed to pay for the extra distance we would travel. We made a quick pit stop to buy some bread jam and snacks as it was already close to 2PM and were not going to get any hotels on the way. 

A monastery visible on the way back to Leh

We were to drive now to a small model village very close to Leh, called Saboo. You need to take a diversion off the main Leh highway to reach this place.  The drive to this village is indeed very beautiful as you will see beautiful fields on either side of the roads and small settlements every now and then amidst the fields. The place Anchuk intended to take us was further down that road after the village ended and the roads starts narrowing and hills on both sides start funnelling. At a place where finally the road ends is where he came to a stop. At this place, you have a beautiful stream of glacial water that flows down from the hills. A small bridge lets you cross over the stream. The water here is icy cold, so not exactly the kind of place where you want to dip your feet in water. The banks of the stream are strewn with rocks and pebbles so there is enough place for you to sit and enjoy the cool breeze and beautiful view or walk upstream to see where the water leads. We tried to do both, initially hiking upstream and after a while just sat and enjoyed the view, listening to the soothing sound of the stream. You will find wild plants with beautiful pink flowers strewn all around the hill sides, this along with the lush green fields through which the stream flows makes it a picture perfect scene. We could see far off that there were tents put up so this is definitely a place where people come camping.

Notice, none of our feet is in water? Icy cold water!

Wild Plants bearing beautiful pink flowers

After an hour or so at this place, it was time for us to head back and not of our own accord I will have to add. Anchuk had to come searching for us upstream as we had wandered off some distance. On the way back, we again made him stop at one of the mustard fields for a quick last photo op before finally bidding farewell to the beautiful village. 

A video of the place:

Saboo is just about 10-15 kms away from Leh, so it was a quick drive back to hotel. Although it was already around 4 pm in the evening, the hotel folks were kind enough to have saved us some lunch. Hungry as we were, we were more than glad to eat whatever they served.  Post lunch, Shilpa and Saritha decided to get some sleep, while we guys decided to make the most of the time while the ladies slept by watching an action movie. Independence Day was what we decided to watch, no better thing than watching humans kick some alien ass, while discussing the minor technicalities of how the hero achieved to interface an apple mac with alien technology to transmit the virus.  After an hour of getting completely bored of whatever was playing in the cable, we decided to risk the wrath of the ladies by waking them up, and I was nominated for this life threatening job. I did however succeed in waking them up, after of course hearing several choicest of abuses and death threats.

In the evening, as we didn't really have any planned activity, we again decided to venture out in search of Momos and thupka(traditional ladakhi dish). We took the same alleyway that me and Abhishek had explored the previous day and started strolling. Abhishek was interested in taking a bike for atleast a day and we enquired about the rates at several of the bike renting stores, the standard price seemed to be in the range of 1-1.5k Rs per day. We however were neutral to his enthusiasm as we had only 2 bikers in our group and suggested Abhishek to take a bike on the last day of the trip instead. 


There were several hotels on this way, but pretty much all of them seemed to be empty, so we assumed they might not be popular and kept walking ahead looking for something better. After 10-15 minutes of walking we did come across one that looked quite popular and decided to try it out. It looked like a popular hangout with both foreigners and Ladkahi folks, and once we had placed orders we were told that it will take atleast 20-30 minutes to deliver. Hoping it will only take as much time as they said, we sat in for a long haul. We saw the food served to us only an hour later and by the time we were done and ready to move it was close to 8 pm. As we had a long drive planned the next day, we decided to head back to hotel and call it a day.

Next day we had the actual road trip beginning with us heading to Nubra valley. To reach Nubra valley, we have to travel via Khardung La pass,which has the claim of being worlds highest moterable road and we were quite excited about it. We had been asked to buy several bottles of Nimbupani as Anchuk had informed us that this will help us with the high altitude. Something you can keep in mind while you plan your trip via Khardungla pass, to buy a bottle of Nimbupani. This along with Diamox tablet(prescribed generally to avoid getting altitude sickness) taken before you start your journey is meant to help with the altitude sickness. More about that in the next post for Day 4 :)

Ladakh Trip - Day 4(Nubra Valley) will follow.

Pangong - A day in Heaven

Collage of couple of videos and photo taken during the day in Pangong. Viewing in High resolution is highly recommended!

Sweet Home

Came across this nice little video today in Facebook. Its tamil video, but has subtitles, so everyone should be able to understand :)